Red Clover winner

The Red Clover Award is a Vermont state book award for the best new picture book of the year. The committee chooses ten books and children in grades K-4 read them and vote.

My method of voting worked well last year, so we did the same thing again this year. After I read all ten books to the kids (over the span of several weeks), each kid gets a sticker dot to place on their book page of choice.

This year Whoosh, by Chris Barton, was the clear winner. It is a good book, but I'm a little skeptical of how many kids truly loved it and how many were voting for the book with the most stickers. :) I may try something a little more confidential next year!

Whoosh tells the true story of Lonnie Johnson, the inventor of the Super Soaker.  Mr. Johnson grew up in the 1950/60s, competed in science fairs at colleges that had just barely desegregated, worked at NASA on the Galileo mission, and went on to invent many things, including the Super Soaker.  The book is the story of diversity and overcoming adversity. A story of grit and perseverance.

I'll send the votes to the state to be compiled with votes from all of the other elementary schools.  We'll see if the rest of the state agrees with DBS's choice.

(My husband, reading over my shoulder while I wrote this, just went on a long tangent about thermal coupling, thermal piles, and the importance of the work Lonnie Johnson did for NASA and our space program.  So, I guess this guy is well known in the engineering field!)  

Mini golf video

I was playing with a new program this evening and decided to use it to put together a video of the PTO mini golf event from last month.  :)  I'm VP of the PTO, so I thought it would be a good job for me.  Check it out!

Dorothy Canfield Fisher winners

Fourth and fifth graders voted last week and The Land of Forgotten Girls, by Erin Entrada Kelly, was the winner at DBS!  There were 21 kids who read at least five of the nominated books and got to vote.  One motivated kiddo read all 29 books from the list! The Land of Forgotten Girls won by a small margin.  It seems there wasn't a landslide winner like there was last year.  It was also our Battle of the Books winner in 4th grade this year.

The Vermont Department of Libraries tallied the votes from all of the voters throughout the state and the official winner is Projekt 1065, by Alan Gratz!  I loved this book! It was so exciting!  It was also a semi-finalist in our Battle of the Books in 5th grade this year.

Alan Gratz has two books on next year's Dorothy Canfield Fisher book award list: Ban This Book, and Refugee.  Check out the whole list and get a jump start on your reading!

Kindergarten Narratives

Kindergartners in my WIN group finished their narratives this week and were thrilled to see that I bound them into books.  They took turns reading their books to the rest of the group.  They felt very special sitting in the reading chair.  :)  Next writing topic - opinion pieces!  I think they'll do very well with that! :) 

Chain reaction machines

Fourth graders built chain reaction contraptions in their classroom and were eager to continue the experience in library.  They came up with some pretty amazing designs and were able to redesign them as necessary to make the "chain reaction" part work.  

Battle of the Books winners!

The Battle of the Books took a little longer than expect, but we made it to the end and celebrated!

The fourth grader winner were able to defend their book, The Land of Forgotten Girls, by Erin Entrada Kelly to the end, convincing their peers that their book is best.

4th grade winning book

Fifth was a cliff-hanger for a few extra weeks, but the winners put together a cute (spoiler alert worthy) news report to help their book win the battle.  Congrats to When Friendship Followed Me Home, by Paul Griffin.  

5th grade winning book

  

Each team got to invite friends and we all celebrated with a pizza and brownie lunch.  Crazy kids! :)

4th and 5th grade Battle of the Books winners, plus their invited guests.

Next week all the 4th and 5th grades will be taking a Battle of the Books survey.  I can't wait to see what they have to say.  

We will also be voting for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher book awards next week.  All of the books in the Battle of the Books this year are on the Dorothy Canfield Fisher book award list.  

Vermont Institute of Natural Science

The Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) has an excellent educational program and does a lot in schools, including DBS.  Today Anna from VINS came to DBS with a few of her feathered friends.  I had 1st grade at the time so I got to go too! :)

The kids loved seeing the birds, especially the one that pooped on the floor.  Can't beat that for an assembly!  After she put the birds away the kids got to come up and touch the feathers, wings, and feet.  A little cringe-worthy, in my opinion, but the kids loved it!

Anna and her owl

Bird feet are fascinating

This is pretty much how I felt about the feet getting passed around!  :)

Wings galore!

Bird wings and feet.  The kids were amazed that they are real.

The kids had a great time!